09.5 Double Dealing with a Lich

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Kalans Revenge Mercenary Company
Company members:-
Taran – Half Elf Fighter/Priest of Mannanan Mac Lir, cousin to Carinne and Galvish
Carinne Rhianne Talynnart – Half Elf Ranger/Mage, Cousin to Taran and Galvish
Krachtig – A Quiet Gnome
Galvish – Half Elf Fighter/Thief, Cousin to Taran and Carinne
Barrigan Stonebeak – Dwarf Fighter/Priest, Company Engineer.
Lanneus Tuard – Paladin of Manannan Mac Lir
Saeryn Ghent – Fighter – (Kalans Sister)
Derek Summers – Fighter – Ex-squire to Taran

Return to the Valley of the Kings

We return to a point at the head of the valley with some familiarity, having visited this accursed area crawling with undead many times before.
We start our trek up one of the branches of the valley, it is not long before we are assailed by a Gorgimera.  This triple headed beast carries the worst attributes of a red dragon, a lion and a gorgon, in an instant Barrigan and Saeryn are petrified and various other members of the party are engulfed in flame.  We take care of the creature pretty quickly and return our comrades to their normal state.  Before the day is out we encounter a Remorhaz, this beast is cold to the touch but burns with an inner heat.  When it is hit in close combat a massive amount of heat is released injuring the combatant. Corinne finishes off the beast with a flurry of arrows.
After resting for the night we continue our search for the tomb of El Rahid, we cover many miles and encounter yet more creatures including another Gorgimera and Remorhaz, in the latter encounter Derek is swallowed whole resulting in his untimely demise.  We kill off the creature and restore life back to him.  In the next encounter with giant beetles he is knocked unconscious, he seems to be some sort of lightning rod for all that is ill. By the end of the day we uncover the tomb we search for.  The runes proclaim it to be the tomb of El Rahid, Lord of the Oceans and Master of the Earth.  We rest up for the night and prepare ourselves to raid the place in the morning.
The morning dawns and the band of eight prepare to remove the traps found on the doors to the underground tomb.  Krachtig and Galvish do sterling work in identifying and removing the traps, both magical and mechanical, Taran lends a hand in finding them with a spell and they make good progress deeper into the tomb.
The first occupied rooms contains 8 coffins, as soon as we step into the room Lanneus helm glows blue, a sure sign undead are in the immediate vicinity and sure enough bursting forth from their resting place come black skeletons.  They seem familiar to many of the party and when one is beaten down its body explodes with razor sharp shards hurled into the people nearby.  Barrigan and Taran manage to disrupt several of the skeletons with their maces and this prevents them from exploding.
After finishing off the last of the creatures we patch ourselves up and explore the next room.  Again there are 8 coffins but these contain some type of foul smelling zombie who collapse in a cloud of foul smelling vapor when destroyed, none of the party succumb to the ill effects of this, although Taran comes close to losing his breakfast with the nausea.
We move to the next room which looks like some sort of corpse assembly place.  Lanneus enters the room on seeing nothing threatening from the door, immediately his helm glows blue and skeletons and mummies emerge from the darkness and attack.  There also are some spellcasting undead in here who take over the mind of Lanneus, the first we know of this is when he turns on Saeryn who is in the thick of battle with creatures around her, she slides to the ground unconscious although the healing magics Taran had placed on her keep her from dying.
Corinne moves around and entangles the Paladin with a magic rope to prevent him from doing any more damage to us.  We finish off the last of the undead and remove the charm from Lanneus.
Having cleared out the last room in the West wing of the complex we move to the central portion.  Once again we have to clear many traps before we can enter the main room.  Immediately we step inside an apparition rises from a sarcophagus on a raised central dais. It announces itself as Lord El Rahid, former ruler of the land and asking why we are desecrating his tomb.  We are a little surprised to be confronted by this ghost and Taran determines that this is not an evil apparition.  We explain the need to raise the sunken temple and needing the counterweight the lich holds and the deal we had made with the him.
The undead former ruler suggests a different course where he will give us the staff and a golden collar which enhances the staffs power, but will also allow control of the wearer.  This gives us a chance to prevent the lich from using the staff to take over the island.  We agree to the deal although this will cost is a magic tome we hold.
The journey back to the lich is uneventful now we know to carry a truce flag.  We make the deal and come away with another magic item in exchange for the collar. We expect to have some revenge extracted on us when the lich discovers the true nature of the collar.  Until then we plot our next mission, to steal horses from the Barelin forces.